Opinion
Opinion articles in the November 2008 and August 2009 editions of The Sydney Globalist.
What is the Future of Liberal Democracy?
Wesley Lalich considers the future of an enduring system of governance.
Over the past decade, the global landscape has fundamentally changed, with nascent indicators of an end to Western hegemony appearing in tangible and sustainable forms. Whilst it has become modish to discuss China’s rise, it seems evident that even if the Middle Kingdom does not eclipse America, the combined weight of the emerging Asian nations, impressive growth in parts of South America and Africa, and a resurgent Russia all signal the relative decline of Western economic pre-eminence. Western countries undoubtedly enjoyed a half-millennium of exploring, exploiting and subjugating much of the globe, siring new societies in the Americas and Australia, and finally concluding in the last half-century that self-determination should apply beyond Europe. [...]
China’s African Safari
Genevieve Curtis explores the paradox of the Sino-African friendship.
Sub-Saharan Africa comprises 49 nations, with a combined gross domestic product less than that of Florida. It is a region whose slice of the global economic pie is shrinking by the day. Worse yet, it lacks the power to strategically negotiate a larger share in the international market. The shifting configurations of global power structures and intensified globalisation in all of its forms have led to burgeoning relations between China and Africa, with China presenting itself as an emerging economic power bloc and a threat to Western hegemony in the continent. [...]
The Fallout from Nowruz
Oliver Lindholm explains why soft power won’t work (in time) in Iran.
On 20 March, United States President Barack Obama ended his Nowruz overture to Iran with the words: “Thank you, and Eid-eh Shoma Mobarak,” essentially a message of peace from the American people. Upon the invocation of this phrase, uttered in the local vernacular, one can imagine the almost immediate, collective intake of breath from audiences. Had the President just spoken Farsi? More to the point, had he just spoken Farsi in the way in which it was intended to be spoken? [...]
The Face of Another
Glenn Kembrey explores the different faces of Japanese power.
Edith Cresson, a French Prime Minister in the early 1990s, once described the Japanese as “yellow ants trying to take over the world”. From her perspective, Japanese people were “little yellow men” who “stay up all night thinking about ways to screw the Americans and Europeans”. Racism aside, the comment reveals the different faces of power involved in international politics since the end of the Cold War. How is it that Japan, a nation that has constitutionally renounced the use of force as a sovereign right, was feared for its potential to dominate the world stage? [...]
Torture Under International Law: Setting A Dangerous Precedent
Matthew Kalyk explores the long-term implications of failing to prosecute Bush Administration officials for torture.
On 16 April 2009, four U.S. Justice Department memos written in 2002 were released to the public. The memos detail the legal reasoning Bush Administration lawyers relied upon to justify the use of interrogation techniques against detainees. The techniques range from stress positions (such as standing for four hours) and twenty-eight hour interrogations to waterboarding and deception relating to the safety of family members. [...]
Opposition in Crisis
Tim Mooney explores the motivations of those who reject global consensus as the way to recover from the financial crisis.
In March this year, the Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors of the G20 nations agreed that steps to fight the financial crisis needed to include ‘bank recapitalisation’ and ‘fiscal expansion’. In other words, they advocated bailouts of failing banks and significantly increased government spending. In early April, the G20 Leaders’ Meeting confirmed these policies. The G20 includes wealthy liberal democracies, developing nations, and authoritarian states, including governments of every political stripe. [...]
Reclaiming Pakistan’s Sporting Oasis
Varsha Maharaj explores the unwelcome intersection of terrorism and sport.
In March this year, several gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying the visiting Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore, Pakistan. This act of terrorism killed seven Pakistani security guards and a driver, and wounded eight cricket players, an assistant coach, and a local umpire. Until this attack, it could have been said that cricket, or any other sport for that matter, was immune from the effects of global terrorism. [...]
Re-Cognising Crisis
Melissa Yu unpacks our assumptions about the global economic and environmental crises.
In reading Plato’s famous ‘Allegory of the Cave’, we encounter a most interesting scenario. The people are born into a world of shadows, whereby their entire perception, understanding and knowledge of reality and of existence are based on shadows on the cave wall. When they are then forced to confront the physical objects that cast the shadows, they refuse to accept these foreign objects as the truer versions of the world. [...]
Rethinking Crisis
Peter Son discusses the power of the term ‘crisis’ to initiate action, both for better and worse.
When one hears the word ‘crisis’, alarm bells start to ring. To be in crisis mode means to border on anarchy. There is no rationality and no governance. There is no clear resolution to a crisis. At least this is what the mass media portrays. We are often the victims of such sensationalism. The truth is sometimes distorted and we are misled into believing that an ‘issue’ of global magnitude is an undeniable ‘crisis’. However, whilst adopting a cynical approach to this label of ‘crisis’, it seems almost foolish to not tag a global ‘issue’ as a ‘crisis’, as anything else would seem a rather dangerous euphemism. [...]
The Afghan Surge
Tim Mooney asks whether the strategy of the ‘troop surge’ used in Iraq will also be effective in Afghanistan.
In November 2006, President Bush and his Republican Party suffered a heavy defeat in the mid-term elections. In victory, Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said that “this election is about Iraq” and that the American people had “rejected the course of action the President is on”. The voters seemed to agree. As Democrats were swept to power, 75 per cent of Americans believed that the government would swiftly withdraw troops. [...]
